SME signals

If the right signals could be sent to the owner-managers of small businesses, their workplace safety standards could be lifted, says a Danish researcher.

Professor Peter Hasle, senior researcher at the National Research Centre for the Working Environment in Denmark, recently shared his expertise on safety in small businesses at a Massey University seminar. Strategies for Improving OHS in Small Businesses was hosted by the Centre for Ergonomics, Occupational Safety and Health (CErgOSH).

Hasle has worked as a consultant focusing on small businesses internationally including in SE Asia and Africa. In describing such enterprises, Hasle said they were diverse and independent minded. “They are not happy to be put in boxes.”

Small businesses were highly visible in society, and contributed to a large share of the economy and employment. “But they can slip between your fingers.”  About one in ten were launched or wound up each year, and they had no uniform voice.

They had a limited capacity for anything but business, with little spare time for regulators, inspectors or advisers – the same picture around the globe was that small businesses complied less with regulations than big businesses.

On an encouraging note, Hasle had found that owner-managers generally wanted to be perceived well, with their self-identity caught up in their business. They wanted to have acceptable standards in the work environment, including for safety, and they interpreted signals from employees, colleagues, customers and authorities in order to define an acceptable standard. Regulation in the form of legislation and inspections played a key role in setting the standard. “If you can organise the signals to them about the working environment you can lift the standard.”

Hasle said SMEs typically involved direct management, personalised employment relations, and no professional input outside the core business function. Pure profit is not always a decisive motive, rather the focus is on providing a living. Family members were often involved.

The main priority was the maintenance of an identity as owner-manager, who at work sought to be the first among equals. Part of the employer’s responsibility was handed over to employees who accepted the extended responsibility. This could prove problematic however. An employer might care for the staff, and feel bad if they were harmed in an accident (taking some responsibility). But then the employer would often evade the responsibility by saying how they had stressed to the workers the importance of taking care of themselves.

The employer explains accidents as unpredictable, or a personal blunder by an employee. “They don’t take preventive steps as that could be perceived as admitting culpability … there is a belief that nothing the employer could have done would have made a difference.”

The owner-manager tended to downgrade risks “and talk them away”, only doing the minimum of what was acceptable and perceiving relevant safety legislation as too bureaucratic. They were difficult to get in touch with, and operated within limited management resources.

Hasle said effective support systems to small business owners should be low cost with a practical orientation, focusing on what to do rather than identifying risk. There was not enough knowledge about cost-effective and sustainable outreach activities, and too often systems evaporated after the first pilot project.

Overall in the EU employment was growing in small enterprises so they were increasingly important for society. The frequency of fatal accidents at work was about double for small businesses than large enterprises. “And I am quite sure the frequency of all other accidents follows.”

A Canadian study showed the injury rate closely related to whether survived as a business. Those with better safety records were probably better at organising their business and attentive to how they treat their employees

There were more problems in small businesses with body strain injuries and less with repetitive task-related problems, probably because the work was more diverse. The psychosocial factors were also better, possibly due to closer social relations and a more cordial work atmosphere.

Hasle said the challenges for preventative strategies included negative reactions to requirements which distract attention from the core business (SMEs don’t see OHS as core activity). Criticism of the business could be taken personally. Information is not searched for and is only used if it arrives exactly when needed (or it is forgotten about). Owner managers want to know what to do, not how to find out, the latter regarded as a theoretical exercise of no use. They see paperwork and meetings as waste of time, and would prefer to do things without the need for that.

He suggested New Zealand might need to look at linkages between H&S programmes to provide the same types of messages to small businesses, with possibly a more collaborative and standardised approach between DoL and ACC.

This story appeared in Safeguard Update newsletter of 22 March 2010.

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